Ursuline Wimbledon Joins Ursuline Dallas Across the Pond

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As an Ursuline school, we share our sisterhood with girls across the world. Although we are all connected by our heritage, each school and Ursuline girl’s lives are very different which we were only left to confirm after speaking with our English sisters who ventured to Ursuline Dallas this fall, in October. During their short ten day visit, each host was sure to show them a true Texas lifestyle. This delegation was particularly lucky because they came during the time of the renowned State Fair of Texas and experienced all its fried food glory first hand. They quickly learned that Texans have a big appetite and lots of choices that come with it, a few favorites
being: Whataburger, In-n- Out, and Chick-fil- a. To them, our dinners are “unique and massive” said Maisie Brading, 14, after eating pizza from Coal Vines then having rolled ice cream for dessert at Chills 360. While this might seem like a casual family dinner to us, they favor food at home especially, roast dinner. Roast dinner is really popular dish usually served on Sundays consists of a meet roast beef turkey or chicken sometimes all three. It is a perfect dish alongside a cup of tea to end a long day after traveling to school and back in the typically groggy London weather which Wimbledon mimics. Of course, our delegates never failed to mention the massive amount of tea they consume daily- one girls “mum” drinks up to 10 cups a day! Upon their arrival, shock set in when the common cups of tea were replaced by coffee in the hands of our fellow Ursuline sisters. Not a day goes by where there aren’t cups of Starbucks scattered through our halls. The infamous chain supposedly lives up to the “everything is bigger in Texas” motto as our British friends said that our version of Starbucks is much better and has tons of options- sometimes including a drive through! Across the pond, fast food chains are a foreign as 16 year olds driving their own cars to school. In England, the driving age is 18 but most do not begin driving until their 20s so it can be a little terrifying when they arrive in Dallas only to have their younger host sister driving them around and even more appalling that it is in her own car. Without this luxury that we often take for granted, their average commute to school is longer than ours even though they live closer. They have to walk, use trains, or take buses, which luckily, are free. The friendliness of Dallas was surprising to our foreign friends as well. Since we rarely walk around, everyone says hi to people here, in England you don’t talk to anybody on the streets if you don’t know them, they don’t hold hands in mass, and teachers are closer with their students. In school, their classes are typically larger than our fifteen student average, theirs range closer to thirty students in each “lesson” which is what they call their classes. A typical school day for our English friends begins at 8:35 a.m. and ends at 3:10. Each day includes 6 lessons, each 50 minutes long, with multiple breaks, off campus lunch, and P.E. lessons because it is uncommon for them to do sports outside of school. After school they use their time as a period of relaxation. A few of their favorite relaxing activities include watching Netflix, going to the city (London) for shopping, or playing with pets. Though the daily activities of the students in Wimbledon seem slightly strenuous to us, each girl finds a balance and truly embodies the Ursuline Girl lifestyle.